Sonos, nonetheless attempting to repair its damaged app, lays off 100 staff

Sonos has laid off round 100 staff on Wednesday, first reported by The Verge and confirmed to Engadget. Staff from the corporate’s advertising division allegedly bore the brunt of the hit. The cuts come as Sonos tries to concurrently promote the general public on its new Ace headphones and fix the rebuilt Sonos mobile app, which CEO Patrick Spence admitted was the results of his push for improvement pace.

The corporate confirmed the layoffs in a press release to Engadget. “We made the troublesome choice to say goodbye to roughly 100 staff members representing 6 p.c of the corporate,” Spence mentioned in a press release. “This motion was a troublesome, however vital, measure to make sure continued, significant funding in Sonos’ product roadmap whereas setting Sonos up for long run success.”

The corporate can also be reportedly “winding down” some buyer help places of work, together with one in Amsterdam scheduled for shutdown later this yr. Sonos’ LinkedIn web page reports 1,800 staff worldwide, and the six-percent determine quoted within the assertion would put it at about 1,650 staff. The corporate’s final layoffs, in June 2023, slashed seven percent of its workforce.

Though Engadget’s review was largely impressed with the corporate’s new Ace headphones, the app complaints largely overshadowed the extremely anticipated {hardware} launch. Designed to handle “efficiency and reliability points” and rebuild the developer platform with “trendy programming languages that can enable us to drive extra innovation quicker,” the app launch has been a debacle. It’s created complications for the corporate’s most loyal prospects and threatened to tug down the model because it pushes into new product classes. It even led to the delay of two new products that have been in any other case able to roll.

The brand new Sonos app for Android, iOS and desktop launched in Might with out core performance like sleep timers and alarms. Prospects reported issues rearranging audio system in numerous rooms, some solely working intermittently and issues finishing different fundamental duties. Others even mentioned they typically couldn’t load the app on the primary strive.

For a style of how damaged the app is, Spence laid out a timeline to restore it in a weblog put up late final month. July and August have been devoted to bettering stability when including new merchandise and implementing Music Library enhancements. An August and September window is reserved for bettering quantity responsiveness, person interface, stability and error dealing with. September and October will embody tweaks to alarm consistency and reliability, and the restoration of modifying playlists and queues. Enhancements to settings may even be addressed. (Phew!)

In Spence’s assertion about Wednesday’s layoffs, he mentioned the cuts received’t have an effect on the work on the app. “Our continued dedication to the app restoration and delighting our prospects stays our precedence and we’re assured that immediately’s actions won’t influence our capability to ship on that promise,” the CEO wrote.

At this time’s announcement wasn’t obtained nicely by the corporate’s Reddit community, which has been vocal in regards to the app’s issues since its launch. Some seen immediately’s reported layoffs as focusing on 100 staff when one high-profile one would’ve accomplished the trick. “I’ve to say that, I didn’t have each toes within the door to fireplace Patrick Spence, however any CEO who leaves his staff frolicked to dry after which indicators the paper that lays them off is a scumbag piece of shit,” u/teryan2006 wrote.

“Since I took over as CEO, one among my specific factors of emphasis has been the crucial for Sonos to maneuver quicker,” Spence mentioned on a July earnings name. “That’s what led to my promise to ship at the very least two new merchandise yearly — a promise we’ve got efficiently delivered on. With the app, nonetheless, my push for pace backfired.”

Replace, August 14, 2023, 4:56 PM ET: This story has been up to date so as to add the assertion from Sonos CEO Patrick Spence.